18 Sep Gazpacho Soup

You’ll be happy to know all is forgiven. Seems I’m not the only one to have forgotten my sister’s birthday. She read my blog post and called to say I had been keeping very good company in my neglect. Turns out one of her best friends and all of her co-workers were scrunched in the Bad Corner with me. The whole gang forgot her birthday. The irony? Robin works for the Alzheimer Society. Nuff said.

Moving onto today’s topic. Soup. Colourful, isn’t it?

The tomatoes and opal basil are from my garden. I’m so darned pleased it’s ridiculous. You’d think I’d given birth or cured cancer. But as I confessed earlier, it was nature, not me, that produced a stellar crop.

After a delicious 150-calorie gazpacho at Pret a Manger during my travels, I decided to make a batch myself. While researching recipes I found an amazing variety of opinions on the appropriate texture for this soup. Some pureed everything until smooth, others simply diced the vegetables and tossed it all in tomato juice. A third camp did a little of each.

So, here’s my recipe. Make it as chunky or smooth as you like. Being a middle child, I took the middle road and pureed only half the ingredients.

Bursting with tomatoes, peppers and herbs, this easy-to-make soup requires no cooking. While authentic gazpacho soup uses dried bread, this gluten-free version foregoes the bread and focuses on the fresh vegetables of summer.

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Cheryl

My mother in law makes wonderful gazpacho, but it's only partly because of the soup itself. There's a tradition of garnishes in my husband's family: every time there's gazpacho, my MIL sets out bowls of chopped peanuts, chopped hard-boiled eggs, extra onion, bread crumbs, etc. It's fun to doctor the soup as you like, even though I thought adding egg to my gazpacho was a little weird. Love the peanuts w/ it, though!

Hungry Dog

Christie's Corner

Hungry Dog, it is wonderful to have space to grow my own tomatoes and basil. Until I have to weed it.

My vegetable patch isn't very big and until this year I was growing herbs and cherry tomatoes in pots, so don't let lack of land stop you. If you have a balcony or porch, you might be able to grow a few items yourself next year. Just a thought.

Eldon Braun

The stale dry bread in the traditional recipe is supposed to be dampened with a bit of red wine vinegar and pureed into the soup to slightly thicken it. If you only use s small chunk, you won’t even notice it. In Europe, Alvalle (Tropicana) gazpacho is made in Spain from fresh veggies. It’s flash pasteurized and sold refrigerated in one-litre cartons. It’s equivalent to what you’d be served at a good Spanish restaurant.